Brazilian federal police announced Wednesday that they had arrested two individuals suspected of preparing “terrorist attacks”, which according to the Mossad targeted the country’s Jewish community and were instigated by the Lebanese Hezbollah.
The two arrests took place in Sao Paulo, as part of a police operation aimed at “interrupting preparations for terrorism and obtaining evidence of the possible recruitment of Brazilians for the practice of extremist acts in the country”, a explained the federal police in a press release, without further details on the possible targets.
Police also carried out eleven searches in the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District of Brasilia.
Israeli intelligence service Mossad indicated in another press release that it had collaborated with the Brazilian authorities to “thwart an attack in Brazil, planned by the terrorist organization Hezbollah, directed and financed by the Iranian regime”. The Mossad evokes “a terrorist cell operated by Hezbollah to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in Brazil”.
According to the Brazilian channel TV GloboBrazilian authorities asked Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest of two citizens with dual Brazilian-Lebanese nationality who are currently in Lebanon.
Second largest Jewish community in Latin America
For the moment, Interpol has not responded to requests from AFP. Police operations like those on Wednesday are rare in Brazil, a country which has been spared large-scale attacks.
There Jewish community Brazilian, which has around 107,000 members, is the second largest in Latin America, behind that of Argentina and its 250,000 members.
Argentina’s Jewish community was devastated by two bomb attacks in the early 1990s, against the Israeli emby in 1992 (29 dead and 200 injured), then against a Jewish mutual two years later (85 dead). and 300 injured).